Music Videos are entered into our Short Film division, which includes narratives, documentaries, animated films, and music videos under 30 minutes.

MISSION & OBJECTIVE

United Film Festival - Los Angeles screens cutting-edge independent films and highly acclaimed classic movies with the audience in mind. With festivals in Los Angeles, New York, London, San Francisco, Chicago, and Tulsa, United Film Festival’s focus is to bring together talented filmmakers from diverse backgrounds, thus creating a “United” showcase of creative energy and talent. This is a film festival for everyone, a place where art and community converge.

United Film Festival is committed to providing opportunities for our large and constantly growing network of filmmakers through a variety of outlets beyond our six festivals, including the United Film Festival Screenwriting Contest, now in its third year, and our distribution division, United Films. As of 2012, United Films acts as a sales representative for over 50 independent titles, many of whom are United Film Festival alumni or former submitters.

ABOUT THE FESTIVAL

A Tulsa native filmmaker, Jason Connell and his production company Connell Creations founded the United Film Festival - Tulsa ten years ago, expanding to Los Angeles & New York in 2007 and San Francisco, Chicago, & London in 2009. As a result of these six unique festivals, we have built a large network of filmmakers and in 2011, we continued to expand that network by creating a forum solely for screenwriters with the United Film Festivals Screenwriting Contest, which accepts short and feature scripts in Drama, Comedy, and Horror/Thriller categories. Winners are honored at the United Film Festival - Los Angeles.

United Films, the distribution division of Connell Creations and the United Film Festival, continues to support the United network by offering opportunities to filmmakers beyond our festival. We have celebrated many successes through this avenue, and many of those films were originally United Film Festival submissions.

Another way we connect to our network of filmmakers is by offering Film Feedback, designed to provide valuable insight by sharing comments from our programming committee. Film Feedback is optional and can be added to any submission.

Filmmakers are welcome to submit to a single festival or one of our United packages for a great deal. Each festival has a fresh lineup and a different set of programmers, so if a film is not accepted into one festival, it is still eligible for acceptance into every other festival in its package. Follow the instructions under “General Rules” to apply to each listing on Withoutabox without having to pay extra fees.

Our festivals are always exciting events filled with insightful Q&As and many opportunities for filmmakers and audience members to interact. Along with the high quality independent films and special premieres, each festival showcases a few of our favorite classic films, making the United Film Festival truly a place for film lovers of all types. Special events in the past have included Lifetime Achievement Award ceremonies for guests such as screenwriter Carl Gottlieb (Jaws), actor Dabney Coleman (War Games, Tootise), and Oscar nominated director Mark Rydell (On Golden Pond, The Rose.)

In addition to creating the United Film Festival, Jason Connell directed and produced the heartwarming documentary “Strictly Background” in 2008, and has produced critically acclaimed films such as “The Rock-afire Explosion,” “Cleanflix,” “Gabi on the Roof in July,” and “Holy Rollers: The True Story of Card Counting Christians.”

Our United Film Festival - Los Angeles takes place at the Los Feliz 3 Cinemas, with special events at the historic Vista Theatre.

Los Feliz 3 Cinemas
1822 Vermont Ave.
Los Angeles, CA 90027

United Film Festival
http://www.theunitedfest.com

2013 Season
Los Angeles - April / May
New York - May
London - June
San Francisco - Aug./Sept.
Chicago - Sept.
Tulsa - Oct.

ORGANIZERS

Jason Connell

GENERAL RULES

*All short films should be under 30 minutes. Full-length documentaries or feature films should be over 30 minutes.

Submitters have the option to enter their film into consideration for a single city, a package of 3 United Film Festivals, or the entire season of 6 United Film Festivals. Currently, all festivals are separate listings on Withoutabox.
To apply for a United 3 or United 6 Package on Withoutabox:
1. Submit your film in the first city you would like to be considered in and pay for the entire package in that city.
2. Then, for all the other cities in your package, go through the process of submitting to each listing as normal, and when prompted for payment, utilize a waiver code so that you do not incur any more fees.
3. The waiver code is simply the name of your package deal (United 3 OR United 6). Under the box marked ‘Reason’ provide the Withoutabox tracking number of the festival to which you originally submitted. See the example below:
Waiver Code: United 3
Reason: LA-1234-SHO

Submitters to United 3 packages can also email us directly with their three desired festivals at: info@theunitedfest.com.

United packages have rolling deadlines and the prices do not change over the course of our season. You may purchase our packages at any time and your package will begin with the first festival still open for submissions. If a festival in our season has already closed, your package will roll over to the next festival season and will always include six festivals. If you purchase a United 3 package, you choose the festivals that you would like to be considered for, which can also roll over to include next year's season if multiple deadlines have passed for our current season.

Submitters also have the option to add Film Feedback to their submission. This is an optional service that is designed to provide valuable insight by sharing comments from our programming committee once the festival has closed.

Do not attach labels directly to your disc as they can negatively affect our DVD players.

Even if you are submitting to a United 6 or United 3 Package, please only send ONE COPY of your DVD. We take on the responsibility of distributing your film to the various programmers for each festival and hope this helps with the time and expense of submitting to multiple festivals.

United Film Festival - Los Angeles and the United Film Festival is hereby granted the right to utilize an excerpt from any film submitted and accepted for exhibition at the Festival for promotional purposes.

The individual or corporation submitting the film hereby warrants that it is authorized to commit the film for screening, and understands and accepts these requirements and regulations.

The undersigned shall indemnify and hold harmless Los Angeles United Film Festival from and against any and all claims, liabilities, losses, damages, and expenses (including but not limited to attorney's fees, and costs of the court) which may be incurred by reason of any claim involving copyright, trademark, credits, publicity, screening, and loss of or damage to the screening videos entered.